memorial box monday - the great provider

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What I am about to share is fairly personal, but you should know I have the permission of my darling husband to do so.

December 1st around 5:15 PM I got a call from Eric, which I promptly ignored because I was in a tutoring session. He immediately called again, which I thought strange because he knows my schedule and should have known where I was. I quickly sent him a text saying "tutoring." He replied "I know, it's kinda important..."

It was the "..." that tipped me off. My husband (like most men I'm sure) is a get to the point guy. He lays the facts out on the table in a quick and concise manner. He does not "..." or leave things to the imagination. I immediately knew something was wrong. I excused myself from my student to call him. He relayed the imminent bad news in the only way he knew how, like ripping off a bandaid he said "I was just fired."

Words eluded me. Emotions excaped me. All I felt was numbness. You know that pit-in-your-stomach feeling? Yup, had that too. You may recall this post, where I regaled you with tales of how God prompted me to leave my full-time teaching position in hopes of starting a family? So picture us, living frugally on 1.5 incomes over a year later with no expansion to our family save a lab/collie mix, just getting the news that less than a month before Christmas 3/4 of our income has vanished.

We did what any couple in our situation would do. We cried out to the Lord. And He has answered. No, Eric didn't miraculously get an even better job the next day (not that God can't do that) but He has sincerely shown us the love of Christ through his people. Our church has stepped up in ways we never could have imagined to support us during this time. God is good.

But, even with all the support we getting and the prayer uplifting us, I was still worried about us financially. You see he was let go at a time where his next check would only have 3 days of work on it. He filed for unemployment and we held our breath. I checked the bank account on Friday to see if unemployment had gone through. I just stared at the screen in disbelief. I thought "either it went through or it's a Christmas miracle!" Neither. It was a deposit of a substantial amount from his old company.

Guess what our God did?

When I showed Eric the amount and where it was from he was just as perplexed as I was. Until a revelation hit him...he had gotten paid for his unused vacation days! Now you might being saying "duh, you should have known that was coming!" we didn't. It never crossed our minds once. You see, to say the company he worked for was frugal is the understatement of the year so we never imagined in our wildest dreams they would pay him for his vacation days. And the best news? The amount was more than what his normal check would have been!

Praise God! He is good all the time!!!

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;" - 2 Corinthians 9:8